


Prompts From The DinLuke Server

by Syntax



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dungeons & Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Alternate Universe - Transformers Fusion, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blanket Permission, Crack Treated Seriously, Every chapter is a different prompt, Imperial Luke Skywalker, Jedi Culture Respected, M/M, Order 66 Didn't Happen (Star Wars), Order 66 Happened Differently (Star Wars), Paparazzi, Pen Pals, Roleswap, prompts, you don't have to keep the prompt name that's just there for funsies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:48:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 62
Words: 17,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28457808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syntax/pseuds/Syntax
Summary: I'm better at coming up with concepts I want to read than working on stories I want to write, so I've been posting a lot of prompts on the Din/Luke server.  I decided to gather them up and post them here too in case someone outside the server would like to use one of them.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 67
Kudos: 240





	1. Meeting The Mand'alor

Anakin Skywalker never fell completely. He joined Mace Windu in killing Sheev Palpatine, and was given the aid he needed to return to a normal life with his wife and children, raising them both as Jedi of the Order. But this AU isn't about Anakin Skywalker.

Twenty-eight years after the disaster that was Order 66—leaving hundreds of jedi dead or missing even if it failed in killing them all—Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker arrives on Mandalore with two specific goals in mind. He has been summoned to the planet on behalf of newly ascended Mand'alor Din Djarin to serve as the envoy for talks of peace and comradery between their people, and he will see those talks succeed. And perhaps just as importantly, he has been sent by the Jedi Order to determine if the rumors they've heard that the Mand'alor is in possession of one of their missing younglings have any weight. Should that be the case, he will see the youngling home as well.

Things get complicated when the two men actually meet. While Din is more than happy to ally with the Jedi Order, there are other factions remaining from the Civil War that are less than pleased with the idea of making nice with their ancestral enemies. Factions that, perhaps, would rather see him dead than see any agreements being made. And while Luke quickly finds that the rumors of a missing youngling living on Mandalore are in fact true, he was not expecting to find that Din and Grogu had bonded as father and son rather than as captor and captive as the Order had initially feared.

Furthermore... Amidst all the talks and all the meetings and all the potential shootouts and battles that come with living a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, neither Din nor Luke expected to find the other man quite so distractingly attractive.


	2. To Court A King

Luke, a few months into his and Din's relationship, realizes quite abruptly during a trip to Mandalore that Din's title of "Mand'alor" was not just a strange cultural refence to him being Mandalorian, but in fact, means that he's the king of all Mandalorians. Which is a pretty heavy thing for a former moisture farmer to learn about his boyfriend.

Not knowing anything about how to properly court royalty, Luke turns to Leia for advice, desperate to not offend Din or his people any more than he already has.

Meanwhile, Din has been the Mand'alor for like, only a few weeks more than he and Luke have been dating, and still barely knows what the position entails. Like he has _some_ ideas since, as Children of the Watch who are devoted to the old ways, the Tribe had many stories about the Mand'alor and their purpose in Mandalorian society, but not all of those stories are applicable to the present day. Din's world is strange and complicated now, which makes the simple time that he spends with Luke a very welcome breath of fresh air in comparison.

So imagine Din's confusion when Luke starts gifting him expensive goods and ancient relics, talking in a stilted manner appropriate for royalty and generally not being himself anymore whenever Din enters the room.


	3. The Knight And The Wizard

Knight-Errant Din Djarin of the Children of the Watch had a very simple life once: he would ride to cities and towns, hunt men and beasts, and on rare occasions fight in tournaments as a black knight, all to earn the coin needed to feed and clothe his people. The Children of the Watch were once a grand and powerful faction in the country of Mandalore, but time and faction wars and skirmishes with the neighboring Empire had driven their numbers down to a fraction of what they had once been. It's not an easy life, nor is it a comfortable one, but it is the life that Din knows, and it is the life that he will gladly live for the sake of his people.

Here's how that life changes radically in the span of only a few short months: First, Din discovers that the uncontrollable forest spirit he'd been hired to kill was a lost fey child acting out because it didn't know any better—a fey child that quickly imprints on Din as their new parent. Second, Din runs into a half-trained wizard named Luke Skywalker fleeing the Empire for reasons he prefers not to reveal, trading protection and secrecy for the privilege of having someone able to teach his new child, Grogu, how to control their magic safely. Third, Din finds a sword with a blade black as midnight, and he knows deep in his soul that whether he likes it or not, he has just become King of all Mandalore.

Now if he could figure out a way to return to his old life while juggling the trials of fatherhood, reluctantly fulfilling his duty as king to unite the factions of Mandalore, the increasingly hard to ignore attacks by the neighboring Empire, and his growing feelings for Luke, then perhaps everything will be okay. Though, with as oddly enjoyable as things have become now that he's got company to join him on the road, there's a pretty good chance he doesn't actually want to go back to his old life as much as he thinks he does.


	4. Fight For Your Right

The Armorer was right: some of the covert had survived, hiding where they could before finally making contact once again. Din is overjoyed to find out that more than just one member of his family survived the attack on Nevarro, and rushes back home as quickly as he can. He wants to tell his tribe everything that's happened since last he saw them, the meeting with Ahsoka, the discovery of other Mandalorians, the retrieval of the Darksaber—and most importantly, meeting Luke Skywalker, the Jedi master training his son that he's been dating for a good number of months now.

He flies Luke home and sets about talking and reminiscing and crying with the remaining survivors when his cheerful reunion encounters a bit of a snag: Paz Viszla, who is determined to fight Luke to see if he has what it takes to be worthy of one of the Tribe, much less to be worthy of the Mand'alor.


	5. Mistaken Mand'alor

The Mandalorian Sector rarely pays much interest to the New Republic, so the New Republic rarely pays much attention to the Mandalorian Sector. But recently the scattered Mandalorian factions have begun to unite under one man, claiming to be the Mand'alor, and that—that, the New Republic is very interested in. Singular leaders are much easier to conduct politics with than scattered tribes, after all.

Din is invited to a New Republic gala to meet with the other major players in the galaxy, as much so he can get to know them as they can size him up. There are a number of different leaders in the galaxy, after all, and not all of the have the best of intentions for Mandalore, or its new (and reportedly inexperienced) leader. Din arrives to the gala with his armor polished and his suits repaired, the Darksaber on his hip and Luke at his side, fully intending to at least formally announce his courtship to Luke Skywalker even if nothing else happens at this pointlessly expensive party.

Except there's a bit of a problem.

Mandalorians in armor are a rare sight, but the last anyone in the New Republic cared about Mandalore's leadership, it was under the purview of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, well-dressed, _armorless_ Duchess Satine Kryze. So when Din shows up to the gala with blonde-haired, blue-eyed, well-dressed, armorless Luke Skywalker, every single person at the gala aside from Leia assumes that Luke is the new Mand'alor and Din is simply his bodyguard. Armor or not, surely the King of all Mandalore would be the nicely dressed one with a smile and a knowledge of how to play the game instead of the quiet one in scruffy bounty hunter's leathers, right?


	6. The Tribe of Tatooine

Rather than Nevarro, the Tribe found a home for itself deep in the Jundland Wastes of Tatooine. There is much work for bounty hunters to take in the Outer Rim, much more if they're willing to trade their morals for money and work for the Hutts, but the covert finds its niche largely in protecting the farmers of the waste from tuskens and krayt dragons in exchange for water and supplies. A foundling named Din Djarin becomes friends with a farmer named Luke Skywalker during the regular trade meetings between the Tribe and those under their protection, and they grow to be as close as brothers. (Growing closer than than, however, will have to wait until the two are much older, for Din is a fair amount older than Luke and teenagers are usually not inclined to date children.)

Luke dreams of joining Din and the others that venture beyond the Jundland Wastes to earn their keep as bounty hunters in the Outer Rims, wanting to aid what might as well be his extended family rather than fly ships for the Empire that seeks to destroy them, and while Din is apprehensive, he promises to take Luke with him on a job when he turns 20.

Din will not take Luke on a job when he turns 20.

When Luke Skywalker is 19 years old, while Din is offworld collecting enough bounties to get the last money he needs to buy a ship big enough to support more than one person, stormtroopers attack the Lars homestead, killing Owen and Beru Lars. By the time Din touches down on the planet, Luke is already offworld, spirited away along with that old hermit Ben Kenobi on a ship called the _Millenium Falcon_ to who knows where.

Din mourns. He works. He eventually buys the ship he was saving for, a beat-up hunk of junk called the _Razor Crest_. He tells the Armorer he's going offworld for an indeterminate amount of time, and he swears that he's going to bring Luke home.


	7. Close Encounters

Luke is all too happy to bring his newest student's father with him to Yavin 4, though there's a slight problem: Din's ship was destroyed, and Luke's X-Wing can't support two people for very long. Luckily, there's a shuttle big enough to support a small vessel onboard Moff Gideon's ship, and there seems to be enough supplies on it to last Din, Luke, and Grogu more than the week it will take to reach the Yavin System.

Despite the convenience, this does lead to somewhat of a new problem. What does one do for a whole week when trapped in a ship with nothing to do but talk, and nothing for company but a child, your own thoughts, and a very attractive stranger?

The arrival on Yavin 4 can't come soon enough.


	8. To See Your Smiling Face

Luke never did get a good look at the Mandalorian on the ship when he took his helmet off, something that the man—Din, he'd said his name was—was very thankful for when they met again to discuss Grogu's progress some months later. He finds he quite likes Din. The Mandalorian's dry humor and humble aloofness is a welcome change to the awed posturing of the usual types that want to speak with the man who blew up the Death Star and took down the Emperor. Over the months they get to know each other, always meeting to discuss Grogu or the school or events on Mandalore, Luke finds that he likes Din quite a lot, actually. And then...

And then he starts having visions.

There's a man in his dreams that Luke is sure he's never seen before. A man with tanned skin and black hair, with rough hands and the kindest eyes that Luke has seen in years. As much as Luke wants to keep getting to know Din better, the Force seems to be pushing him towards the man in his dreams. And as much as he wants to follow his heart, how can he argue with the will of the Force? He wants to stay with Din. He really does. But as much as he wishes otherwise, there's no way the kind-eyed man in his dreams is the same as the Mandalorian bounty hunter that stumbled into his life.

Right?


	9. King In Borrowed Armor

Din's life has, contrary to what most would think, only gone downhill ever since he found that sword on Dathomir. People think it's a huge honor to become the Mand'alor. And yeah, it probably would be if he were from a more popular House. Instead he gets people doubting his loyalties because he's a foundling recovered by ex-Death Watch warriors, thinking him a repressed cultist because he grew up under the orthodoxy of the Children of the Watch, thinking him weak because he prefers not to fight when he doesn't have to. It's enough to drive a man to run away from it all.

So he does.

Not permanently of course, because he still has a responsibility to his people, but if he maybe sneaks offworld every so often in borrowed armor to run jobs and pretend to be a normal bounty hunter for a while, well. Who would know? And if he maybe makes friends with the wandering Jedi Knight he keeps running into (his name is Luke, and he says it must be the Will of the Force that they keep meeting each other, but Din is more likely to call it a small galaxy) well, that's his own damn business. He's a grown man, he can make friends and get really inconvenient crushes on whoever he likes.

And then, uh. Well, and then there's a matter of Neo-Seperatist attacks on Mandalorian planets, and some Jedi coming from the Republic to check things out to make sure a second Clone War doesn't break out, and they just happen to be twin knights Luke and Leia Skywalker, and... Maybe going incognito was a bad idea, because now Din is stuck with his crush and his crush's sister traveling all over Mandalorian space, and he can't even talk to his crush like he wants to because as far as Luke knows, the Mand'alor is a complete stranger.

Dank Farrik.


	10. And Your Name Is

Luke Skywalker has always known that his soulmate is older than he is. The name on your wrist turns from white to black when your soulmate is born after all, and his has been black since birth. Not that he really minds; most people he knows are older than him. When he gets older he looks up his soulmate's name—Din Djarin, listed as a casualty of the Clone Wars but clearly still alive since the name hadn't faded away yet—and he figures that if his soulmate is someone hard to find, then that's all the more reason to get off of Tatooine and start looking. But then... Then his aunt and uncle get killed by storm troopers, and suddenly there's a lot more important things on his mind than looking for his wayward soulmate.

He saves the galaxy. He wanders the galaxy. There's a lot that the Jedi left behind, a lot that could never truly be taken from them. As he wanders he meets a Mandalorian and his foundling, and he gains a friend and a student in the most unlikely of locations. He makes sure to contact the Mandalorian again as soon as he can, gives the man his contact information so that he can check on his son's progress, and. And somehow, somewhere along the line, the two of them get to be friends. Luke's not the best history student, but he knows enough now to know that a Jedi and a Mandalorian are quite the odd pair.

He doesn't know the man's name. Grogu's father is a terse and tense individual, and never told Luke what his name was since Luke never bothered to ask. And Luke, well. He rather prefers the simple friendship they have over whatever adulation that might develop if he tells the older man his name. They still have to call each other something though, especially as they get to know each other better and start being a bit more than friends, and they end up settling on teasing nicknames for the most part.

Which is how he ended up in the most awkward call of his life, trying to find a way to explain to his sister that no, he hasn't found his soulmate yet, but he _did_ find a very nice man in the Outer Rim who he only knows as Bucket and only knows _him_ in turn as Boots.


	11. Letters To Nowhere

Mandalorians are no stranger to grief and loss. When Din Djarin is taken is as a foundling, he's given a tablet to write if he needs to—whatever he's thinking, whatever he can't quite say, whatever he needs to just get out of his tiny body. He's encouraged to write letters to his family if he wants to, to give them something to read as they march ahead and he does. There's a contact listed in the tablet that's broken and and unworking, even if it can still receive messages, and he writes letters to his family there whenever the need arises. It helps him cope. It helps him adapt. And it takes years, but finally he gets a response.

Dozens of parsecs away on Tatooine, Luke Skywalker has just bought an old tablet at a junk shop and fixed it up only to find countless messages in his inbox despite it not being in use for years. And he reads through them, or at least a few of them before deciding that the rest are too private for his eyes to look at without permission, and he sends a message back to whoever's messaging him that his name is Luke and this is his inbox now, but the stranger on the other end is welcome to keep writing away if it helps. Din sends a message back (giving his first name and _only_ his first name) and very sheepishly declines to continue using Luke's inbox as his own personal diary. So Luke asks Din instead if he wants to be pen pals, and Din—Din accepts.

They write each other for years, getting to be good friends through nothing but the messages back and forth. Din tells Luke bits and pieces about the Covert, all scrubbed for incriminating information first, while Luke tells Din all about life on the Lars homestead. They share hopes and dreams and the occasional recipe. They maybe even become a bit infatuated. Just maybe. It's a waste of fuel, but Din makes plans to visit the Lars homestead at some point on his way through the Outer Rim, as a surprise to Luke. All these years they've been talking and they can finally meet face-to-helmet. It's the most excited he's been in longer than he can remember.

So when he touches down on Tatooine and finds the Lars homestead with two charred bodies adorning the front door—

When he goes years and years in the Outer Rim hearing ravings about the pilot who took down the Empire—

When the Jedi that took Grogu away finds him again and introduces himself as Luke—

Din thinks nothing of it. The odds are just too great, and he's lost so much already.


	12. Absent Without Life

Luke did not expect his life to be easy after he recovered the child. The small green child—so much like Master Yoda it hurt—was forlorn and traumatized, riddled with fear and grief and broken attachments. Luke didn't have to guess why; when he'd found the child, cradled in the cold arms of a dead Mandalorian and surrounded on all sides by dead Imperials, figuring out what had lead to such a scene wasn't very hard. He'd expected to have to work to help the child recover from its apparent guardian's death.

He did not expect the oddities that would follow the child.

Luke felt nothing in the Force that would indicate another being in the area, but there would be a chill in his ship at odd hours, or the echo of roiling anger and hate choking the air. At first, he worried that the child had Fallen in its grief, but that didn't seem to be the case. The air was kindest when he was with the child, tinged with something that Luke couldn't explain, but whenever he had to leave his ship for even a moment things would be cold and hostile again. He didn't know how to explain it beyond something wanting him to give the child ever scrap of time and care he possibly could.

Things got worse as time went on. Luke almost screamed when he felt something touch him in the middle of an empty room, hands on his shoulders when he and the child had exhausted themselves training, cold pressure on his neck the few times he'd wondered if saving the child had even been worth it. He still felt nothing in the force, but something told him that whatever was in his ship was getting stronger. Luke took things as well as he could. There was nothing else he could do.

One night, months after the child had first come into his care, Luke stumbled half-asleep through the ship, looking for the refresher before he went back to bed. He ended up opening the door to the child's room by mistake. Luke stared into the small room.

A half-translucent figure in Mandalorian armor stared back.


	13. Trapped In Sanctuary

They all said no. Every single Jedi that Din found, a heaping handful of them left in the galaxy, and they all refused to train Grogu. Some of them had legitimate reasons—a few were only padawans or young knights, far too inexperienced to teach Grogu more than a handful of tricks before being forced to move on. Others, older, more experienced, and more bitter, refused because of the attachment that Grogu had to him. As though _he_ was a problem. Din was ready to throw his hands up and scream like a child. And he did, eventually. Though that had less to do with obstinate Jedi and more to do with the _Razor Crest_ spiraling out of control into the surface of the planet beneath them.

By sheer luck, or perhaps the will of the Force, the impact doesn't kill them. And by _sheer luck_ (or perhaps the will of the Force), they land not too far away from the ruins of an old Jedi temple. An old Jedi temple that just so happens to be inhabited by a man named Luke, who tssks at the explanations Din gives him and asks himself what the Order has come to if it will condemn a child for the crime of loving their father and agrees to train Grogu in the ways of the force without Din even needing to ask.

For that point forward... Din could honestly say he was ashamed of how long it took to figure things out. Luke was such a veritable ray of sunshine that it was easy to overlook that he never stepped out into the sun at all. It was easy to overlook that Luke never left the temple, that he only ever seemed to show up when night was falling. It was easy to overlook that Luke didn't know anything that was going on in the galaxy, that he spoke as though he'd never even heard of the Empire despite being young enough to have been born during its reign.

Seeing him fade away in the morning light like a ghost though? That was pretty hard to overlook. Even if he did come back when the sun set.


	14. Dungeon Delving

College students Din Djarin and Luke Skywalker probably would never have met if not for a weekly Dungeons and Dragons game hosted by a man who turned out to be Luke's godfather. They're in different circles, different majors, and different stages of their life—Luke going for a Masters while Din is just trying to get the Bachelors he needs to better provide for his son—and they seem to have nothing in common aside from a few hours a week where they pretend to go on quests and fight monsters. Their characters might be getting to be friends, but they hardly ever talk outside the game.

But recently it's turned out that their characters, a nameless bounty hunter and the last scion of a broken order, come from a people who were ancestrally enemies. And that's something that generally requires more thought and nuance to play correctly than can be given on the spot for four hours a week. Luke offers to come over and do a combination study-and-brainstorming session to prep for the next game, and Din finds that he can't really say no to the man. They pick a day and they get some takeout since Din's only free time is when he's off work for the night, and they get to talking.

And as they get to talking, they realize that while maybe their characters want to keep being friends, the two of them might want to be something a bit more than that.


	15. Mandalore The Compassionate

In an alternate timeline, the Mandalorian Wars never truly ended. They calmed for a time under Mandalore the Preserver, but erupted just as fiercely again with his death. And Din Djarin, a common soldier among the ranks, is tired of it all. Tired of the fighting. Tired of the death. He challenges the Mand'alor for the right to lead their people in hopes of stopping it all, and he wins by the skin of his teeth. Din has never been one to lead. He has always been one to simply do what he can. And now he will do what he must.

Before the blood has finished cooling, he sends out a proclamation to all that will listen, Mandalorian and Jedi both. Let the fighting end. Let the their people unite, if not as one then as brothers and comrades in arms. Let the Jedi send one of their number unto him that he may welcome them into his house, into his clan, into his life, and with such a union let the galaxy know peace once again.

At first, there is no response to the new Mand'alor's proclamation. Then, the fighting slowly begins to die down. And then—

Then there is Luke Skywalker.


	16. The Mask of Mandalore

The responsibility of the Darksaber is far too heavy for a simple bounty hunter like Din Djarin. At least, that's how he feels about it. So when he finds out that the black-bladed lightsaber was stolen from the Jedi temple, he is all too happy to track down Luke Skywalker once again and return the damn thing. And maybe visit Grogu while he's at it. Grogu turns out to be with Leia for the tenday but Din does successfully find Luke and successfully return the Darksaber to him. Everything is well in the universe.

For all of five minutes. Shortly after he finds Luke on an old planet with history from the Mandalorian Wars, they get attacked by Sith cultists. A lot of Sith cultists. So many, in fact, that they need to retreat into an old tunnel network on the planet that had apparently once been used as an armory by the Mandalorians—or a trophy room by their opponents—filled to the brim with arms and armor. It takes them days, but they're able to overcome their attackers, and Din is able to leave the planet minus one Darksaber, but plus several suits of armor to be returned to his people. Bo-Katan will likely still be pissed at him, but he's not Mand'alor anymore, so what does he care?

...Except. One of the suits of armor Din recovered happened to be the armor of Mandalore the Preserver, the last true leader of the Mandalorians to bear the Mask of Mandalore, an even older and stronger symbol of power than the Darksaber ever was. By recovering the mask, Din has only further cemented his status as the Mand'alor, and unlike the Darksaber the mask cannot simply be returned to another people because there _is_ no other people. It is a uniquely Mandalorian artifact. And now it's his.

Luke might think it's funny but Din wants to scream.


	17. Defy Tradition With Older Tradition

There is no Order 66. There is no Empire. The Clone Wars ended shortly after the assassination of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine by Seperatist forces, and the Jedi Order is recovering from war as well as it can. So too, are the Mandalorians.

Though initially reluctant to take the role, once-foundling Din Djarin is honored to lead his people after recovering the Darksaber from Dathomir. The scattered clans are still healing from the Civil War, from the Night of a Thousand Tears, from far too much time spent squabbling instead of coming together as one people. He brings them together, and he tries to rule as well as he can. Then there is an incident some number of years into his rule. The specifics of it do not necessarily matter. But there is a Jedi Knight by the name of Luke Skywalker in front of Din, and there are the honored traditions of millennia of Mandalorians telling him that for the offense of what the Jedi has done, willing or unwilling, knowing or unknowing, he must pay with his life.

He should kill the Jedi. Part of him even wants to. But both of their peoples are awaiting his decision with baited breath, and tradition or not, Din does not want to drag them all into yet another conflict quite so soon. He is a Child of the Watch as much as he is anything else, and thought his sect was known most for their orthodoxy, they are excellent history keepers as well. He cites an old law and leads the Jedi into old vows, taking his life in a different way. Some will disagree, but Din can only assume a Jedi with a life debt is more helpful than a Jedi that's dead. He sends the Jedi back to his Order and thinks that will be the end of things.

It's only later that Din learns the law he invoked was not for a life debt.

It was for a marriage.


	18. When The Midnight Sky Is Red

Din Djarin is a vampire.

This is not something that he cares to advertise. It's not even something that he shares with his covert—it's a quirk of his home planet, of the person he was before. He's never felt guilty for what he is: he's stronger than his frame would suggest, his nightvision is impeccable, and he can stay awake for quite a long while before needing comparatively little amounts of sleep. Even his thirst was welcome, for what was a bit of blood to feed a growing child until he could hunt for himself when it freed up so much in the way of rations for the rest? He takes to the hunt quickly, and his senses aid him well in his bounty hunting.

But he's not bounty hunting anymore. Ever since the Jedi took Grogu away—ever since the Jedi, Luke, had run into him again and gave him the coordinates to their school so he could see Grogu again—Din hasn't been doing much of any kind of hunting anymore. There's only so much game in the woods of Yavin 4, and their blood can only satisfy so much compared to what comes from the average sentient. He'd leave to do more jobs for the Guild, drink from his bounties like he used to, but he'd have to give a reason for why he needs to leave so frequently when he wants so badly to stay. Din knows that not everyone is as understanding as his Tribe, and he knows that his kind are considered monsters by most. He doesn't want to risk scaring the children and driving them away. He doesn't want to risk driving their teacher away either, though Din knows that with as close as he and Luke have been getting recently it's only a matter of time before he needs to come clean.

He needs to think of something. He needs to find a way to get more blood.

And he needs to do it quickly.


	19. Like Father Like Son

Ahsoka Tano always knew she was getting into some nonsense when she agreed to take her master's son on as her padawan, but she wasn't quite expecting her to rush at her in tears one day asking her if he would have to stop seeing his boyfriend from now on.

It shouldn't surprise her that Anakin's son was having his own secret romance, and so it didn't. Ahsoka was a little peeved not to have noticed, and she was perhaps a little heartbroken with the fact that he'd never told her about it until now, but she tried to do what she could for him. From what she could gather from Luke's blubbering, the problem seemed to hinge on the fact that he was a Jedi. So Ahsoka explained the nuances of attachment to him as best she could in a way he would understand, of the differences between selfish and selfless love. She told him truthfully that the fact that he was willing to let his boyfriend go in the first place spoke volumes about how healthy their relationship was, and how little attachment clouded his mind.

Jedi or not, from Ahsoka's point of view, there should be no reason why the two would need to separate. Luke was a Knight in his own right by now, and he had reached the age of majority for his species. He could make his own decisions. He could handle himself. If the council had a problem with their relationship, they could take it up with her.

And then Luke told her that it wasn't the council that was the problem, nor was it the rules of attachments and the forbiddance thereof.

The problem was that he was a Jedi, and his boyfriend had just been recognized as the new King of Mandalore.


	20. Shrine Of The Old God

Luke had heard stories of the old gods of Mandalore during his studies, fearsome things that lived in shrines like spirits and sustained themselves on the faithful. Sadly, there weren't many of them left. When Coruscant had decided it wanted to become an empire and started invading all its neighboring countries, many of the famed Mandalorian armies had fallen under their might. What remained was scattered pockets of life, usually too wary of capture to tend to the old shrines. It hurt to think about, but sometimes sacrifices to culture must be made so that the people can survive.

Luke could sympathize. Much the same had happened to his and his sister's people, the wizard-monks of Jedha, and many of their ways had been lost already for fear of drawing Imperial attention.

He'd gone off to search for scattered remnants of the Jedi that had escaped the purges, and though his Search had taken him to the ruins of Mandalore, Luke never expected that he would meet one of the old shrine-gods like he'd once heard his godfather had. But the fearsome armored figure that had quickly knocked him on his ass and shoved a holy spear to his throat the second he entered the shrine grounds was unmistakable, as was the child in tattered Jedi robes clinging to the god's foot in search of protection from the stranger. Evidently, at least one of them survived.


	21. Strange Bedfellows

The Jedi/Mandalorian wars have only just ended, but tensions and distrust still runs high. Soldier-turned-mercenary Din Djarin doesn't think twice about transporting a captured Jedi prisoner to some obscure location; he's killed a number of Jedi before, same as the Jedi have killed a number of his friends, and taking one of their number to some creepy lab is hardly enough to make him lose sleep at night.

Getting attacked by a frantic Jedi Knight soon after the drop off though? Yeah that's a bit more pressing.

Din is fully ready to add another notch to his vambraces and go on with his day before the Jedi informs him that the supposedly 50-year-old prisoner he just handed over is actually a child from a very long-living race. Which normally wouldn't be enough to convince him of anything (this is a Jedi, after all) but the Knight has holos to prove it. And Din... Jedi or not, Din does not appreciate being used as the middleman for some lowly _demagolka_ to abuse a child.

He might not like this Jedi all that much either, but currently Knight Skywalker is his best lead to getting the kid back, so it looks like they're going to be working together for the time being.


	22. Confessional

Luke needs to tell Din about his family at some point. He needs to, before Din hears it from someone else. It's hard enough to tell people that his father is Darth Vader, but Din and his people have suffered so much at the hands of the Empire. For most, Darth Vader was merely the right hand of the Emperor, an adherent to an old religion that was notorious for killing his own subordinates, but not so much for killing the average person on a whim.

Din and his covert though? It wouldn't surprise Luke if his father had personally hunted down Mandalorians like he'd hunted down Jedi. And that was what made this so hard.

Din had told him an old Mandalorian saying—no one cares who your father was, only the father you will be—and already knew that Luke's father wasn't the kindest of men when he'd finally told the story of how he got his prosthetic hand. But when he calls his boyfriend over and asks him to sit down for a serious discussion, Luke can only hope that Din truly believes that saying. The last thing he wants is to lose the light of his life to the shadow of his father.


	23. Like My Godfather Before Me

Luke has a boyfriend. That bombshell would be bad enough already but the only reason that Anakin _knows_ Luke has a boyfriend (Force, when did his baby son get so old?) is because Luke wants to _introduce_ said boyfriend to the rest of the family.

They've already had a big argument about all the most important parts. Or at least the parts that Anakin knows about. As happy as Luke is, and as happy as Anakin is for Luke on some level, he's not too proud to admit that his old masters were right and the rules for non-attachment are there for a reason. It's not the same as love, but it skirts the line dangerously close, especially when one is so young and can't so easily tell the difference. He doesn't want his son to get hurt. He doesn't want his son to get exiled, or Fall, like he almost did. But Luke is insisting, so he agrees to have a family picnic in one of the parks nearby and meet the man his son is head over heels for.

They pack a nice lunch and get to talking when they finally pick out a spot. Leia is needling her brother for details and Padme gets concerned when Luke mentions that it may take him some time to slip away from his guards long enough to see them. If he had to guess, she's worried he's gotten mixed up with another senator. Anakin, for his part, isn't really paying attention to the conversation, because there's a figure in Mandalorian armor that's just stepped out of a cab and is headed right their way.

Force. His son is dating a Mandalorian.

Wait. No. _Worse._

Anakin barely registers his son saying that his boyfriend isn't a senator _per se_ when he realizes that the man walking towards them is the _Mand'alor._


	24. The Pain Of Older Brothers

So he'd lived. Him, a few stragglers, and the Armorer. Djarin had survived too, thankfully, as had his foundling, but Paz couldn't really take much solace in that fact after so many of his brothers and sisters in arms had been lost in the process of freeing the child. Djarin had left to return the foundling to its people, and Paz accepted that there was a decent chance he would never see the smaller man again. At the very least, he would never see the foundling again.

So paint him surprised when less than a year after Djarin left them, he returned with both the foundling and one of its people in tow. Apparently the foundling was a Jedi. Apparently the Jedi was the pilot who blew up the Death Star. And apparently Djarin was intending to make the man part of his clan and had come to ask the armorer's blessing.

Going from sharing tables with Imperials to courting the man that killed their leader is admittedly a bit of a leap, but hey, Paz wasn't going to complain if it meant more Imperials died. And the Jedi was astoundingly good in both a combat and childcare standpoint. Djarin could do worse.

Not that Paz was going to let his errant _vod'ika_ knew he approved, of course.


	25. Biff Pow Bam

No one knows anything about the villain called Desdichado. Even among the more secretive members of the cape scene, the armored assassin is an enigma. No one, not even the villains that have employed his services, know his real name, what he looks like under his helmet, or whatever motivation he has for killing people aside from just getting paid exorbitant amounts of money for his work. He was as dangerous as he was mysterious, being responsible for the deaths of more than a few heroes, but there was something about him...

Luke (well, Starburst when he has the mask on) could only speak for himself when it came to the armor clad villain, but he always felt like there was more going on than just a dude deciding to kill people for money. He couldn't prove it since heightened intuition wasn't one of his powers (well, not that they knew of) but Luke was positive that was the case. He'd never gotten any proof of it though—whatever encounters he had with Desdichado only ever revealed the assassin to be a consummate professional.

Until now.

Villains don't exactly walk into Alliance HQ, but Desdichado strides in with his weapons in plain sight and his hands in the air. Luke feels like something important is going to happen suddenly, even if he doesn't know what. Then the assassin speaks.

 _I've come to request your assistance_ , Desdichado says evenly, _the Grand Moff has taken my son, and I can't retrieve him on my own._


	26. And Watch Over Us

The newest planet that Luke (and his new student, Grogu) arrives on during his hunt for Jedi artifacts houses a temple dating back to before the Mandalorian Wars, and is apparently still to this day guarded by a Mandalorian warrior. There's a number of artifacts inside the temple, swarths of texts and tomes and holocrons and so much more than Luke usually finds on his travels. It would take days and weeks to decipher everything, but thankfully the Mandalorian guarding the place, Din Djarin, is surprisingly knowledgeable on what's inside. Din is very easy to get along with actually. While it's weird that he doesn't seem to know anything about the Empire or the fall of the Jedi, he's very keen on making sure that Grogu is well cared for, and he's easy to talk to on top of that.

While Luke is looking through the artifacts, he finds a shrine to a fallen Mandalorian warrior that apparently gave his life to protect the temple's younglings from attacking Neo-crusaders during the War. The shrine text notes that according to local belief, the warrior ascended to godhood upon his death, and that his spirit still guards the temple he died protecting. The Jedi believed that the warrior simply became one with the force, but note that every so often during attacks on the temple, a warrior in Mandalorian armor could be seen fighting with the Jedi Knights. It's an interesting story, but not one that Luke puts much crock into.

Not until he sees the warrior's name: Din Djarin.


	27. Digital Love

There was no child rescued during the Clone Wars. The Decepticon named Razor Crest fled the war in disgust after Megatron destroyed Cybertron, shedding his emblems and swearing off a cause that he no longer believed in. He traveled to a galaxy far, far away, hiding among the common ships and traveling until he gained a decent enough understanding of the languages around him, eventually stopping in a Mandalorian covert. It took many years of assisting the covert, well, _covertly_ before Razor Crest decided to reveal himself to what he'd decided were going to be his new people.

A living ship can hardly be a discrete bounty hunter, but it can assist one. Paz Vizsla becomes the covert's hunter of choice, assisted by Razor Crest's limited holoform as they travel across the Outer Rim. The addition of the small child they'd stolen instead of killed for a bounty made their travels perhaps a bit harder, but they make do, even if it annoys Paz that the child likes Razor Crest better than him. They ferry the child across the Outer Rim and eventually hand it off to a Jedi as the Armorer had tasked them. They mourn, but they go on with their lives.

Then the Jedi comes back, insisting on allowing the child to receive visits from his family—and wondering why the ship said family lives in feels alive in the Force.


	28. That Pass In The Night

Din figures that the best way to find a Jedi probably is to go where the Jedi are most known to be. He scours the galaxy for news on old Jedi temples, places that were sacked during the Clone Wars, places that have stood untouched since the Mandalorian Wars. There's a lot of history there, and a lot of very useful things that could be used for teaching the kid how to control his magic while they look for Jedi, especially the hologram cubes that have Jedi inside them. They stay in the temple for a fairly long time, a few weeks probably, but there's still men after them, and there's still Jedi to look for in the galaxy. They take a few of the hologram cubes with them and head out of the temple—

Just in time to run into a very confused Luke Skywalker in the middle of searching for Jedi texts and relics.


	29. As Old As Rhyme

Sorcerer-in-training Luke Skywalker just wanted to shelter from the rain and the storm. But he finds a monster living within the castle he'd appropriated for shelter, a former knight errant whose armor plating is now much more permanent, and a fey child that loves the monster like a father. What what Luke can tell, the monster, Din, was hired by the local lord to slay the sorcerer that lived in the castle before, and his current form is the result of a curse the sorcerer placed on him with his dying breath. The fey child on the other hand...

The less said about what the sorcerer before him had planned for the child, the better.

Being as Luke is a sorcerer himself and somewhat of a bleeding heart, he agrees to help Din break the curse if Din agrees to let him stay in the castle while the storm rages. Of course, Luke does still have his sister's Queendom to return to as soon as that's over since he swore to her that his journey would only take a few months, but...

Hey, what's the worst that could happen? It's not like she and her guards are going to storm the castle thinking the monster killed him or anything if he takes too long. Right?


	30. Welcome To The Raid

Security guard Din Djarin has had some weird jobs before, but this one is by far the strangest. It's some kind of pharmaceutical lab, he knows that, but he doesn't know what they actually _make_ here, and no one seems really keen to tell him. What do they think he's going to do, steal the product? As if he were that stupid. But then you know, one night there's one of the lab doors left open, and it's his job to check out all the rooms to make sure no one's broken in, and all the weird machines seem to be in order but there's this huge box next to the wall big enough to hide a person in so Din goes and opens it to make sure there's not a burglar or something.

There's a fucking alien baby in there.

There's a fucking alien baby in there, and it's got tubes coming out of it that are feeding its blood into the machines, and Din doesn't really know what to do about that. So he does the only sensible thing that someone can do in that situation: steal the baby, wipe all the security footage, hightail it the fuck out of there, and go to ask his alien-obsessed neighbor Luke Skywalker if he's ready to put his money where his mouth is. He's been meaning to talk to that cute weirdo for a while anyways.


	31. Making Worst Impressions

There are few things that give Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker more joy and more stress at the same time than running missions with his children, Jedi Knights in their own right. he was on a mission with his son to some distant planet in the Outer Rim dealing with a problem he'd already slightly forgotten from the initial briefing, but was confident that they could handle things.

Apparently they could not handle things. The mission went horribly wrong as all of Anakin's missions seemed to, and they were forced to call for backup. There weren't any Jedi in the area that would be able to respond to their call in time, but Luke insisted that a friend of his was close enough to the planet to help and would be glad to do so, so Anakin gave him the go-ahead to send the comm.

Finding out his son was friends with a Mandalorian bounty hunter of all things was admittedly surprising, but Din seemed like a nice enough young man, and he clearly cared for Luke a lot. He was also an exceptionally good shot, which was definitely helpful. Anakin found himself well on the way to counting this mission a raring success—wait did he just hear him call his son Cyar'ika.

Luke.

_Luke._

Luke, explain to your father what—DON'T YOU LIE YOUNG MAN, ANAKIN FOUGHT WITH THE CLONES, HE KNOWS WHAT THAT WORD MEANS.


	32. I'm Here To Rescue You

Din Djarin found Grogu nine years ahead of schedule, leaving him with the covert for safekeeping as he travels through Empire-controlled space and trying to search for a living Jedi as discretely as he possibly can. It's still not enough when his search gets him captured under suspicion of harboring a rogue force-user, but that doesn't mean that his story is over. Though it brings him under the tender mercies of Darth Vader, Din had been taken on board the same ship as Princess Leia in the aftermath of her infamous mercy mission, and the cells they were held in were close enough to be confused by any rushing rebel.

Luke Skywalker might not have been there to rescue _him_ , but a rescue's a rescue and Din's hardly one to look a gift horse in the mouth. If it gets him out of the ship, if it gets him back to the covert, if it gets him back to Grogu and the life they had together—

It looks like he's going to be helping a group of rebels until he can pay off his debt to them.


	33. Eyes Blue As The Sea

Shipwrecks are a mixed bag for selkies. On the one hand, they often mean supplies and trade goods free for the taking, things that the Tribe can use to survive another season in a world that has become increasingly hostile to their kind. On the other hand, they mean getting close to land, and the closer a selkie gets to the land that Men walk, the closer they get to being discovered and having their sealskin stolen. Whether taken for trade value or taken to trap a selkie into marriage, the Tribe has lost too many of its members to bear losing much more. Which means that the Tribe's Seeker, Din Djarin, is exceptionally careful when he ventures close to shore.

He finds much in the wrecked ship, things that will ensure good fortune for the Tribe. But he finds one thing more that he didn't expect: a single survivor in the form of a lost human child. The child cannot live in the Tribe with them, for it cannot swim or survive the cold waters that the Tribe calls home. But the child cannot simply be given to anyone who passes by, for Men are peculiar about raising their pups and will not always open their hearts to children they did not sire themselves. The child must be given to someone with a good heart, who will love him unconditionally and keep him safe. Such Men are rare in the world. But Din is a Seeker, and he is well adept at finding what he needs.

All he must do is locate a suitable caretaker and keep his sealskin close—and perhaps avoid falling in love on the way.


	34. Who You Are To Me

Her husband's dreams had been recognized as no mere dreams all those years ago, and Padmé was almost certain that that was the sole reason that she was standing here today in the senate building speaking with the Mandalorian Delegation. Newly ascended Mand'alor Din Djarin wished to renew old trade sanctions between the Mandalorian Sector and the Republic, but so many of Padmé's fellow senators were trying to push their own agendas with the renewal that no one was going to be satisfied with the end result. She'd sought out Mand'alor Djarin shortly before lunch to ask his opinion on the proceedings and try to find a way to salvage something from their current mess, but evidently the conversation had lasted longer than she'd expected it to since midway through a discussion about the merits of handcraftsmanship her son Luke commed her with his daily _I Love You_ 's.

Which would have been a funny story in itself, but apparently Luke must've seen Mand'alor Djarin in the background of her holoscreen because he greeted the man like an old friend and made sure to share a few words with him. There was an awkward silence in the room after Luke hung up that neither exactly knew how to fill, which apparently prompted the Mand'alor to remark that Padmé was not what he expected Luke's mother to be like. That, of course, prompted Padmé to ask what exactly Mand'alor Djarin was to Luke that he expected to be introduced to his mother at some point.

The Mand'alor did not respond, but his sudden silence was perhaps even more telling.


	35. What's Old Is New Again

Luke Skywalker is not the last Jedi in the galaxy. There are survivors still—Knights and Masters who escaped the Clone Wars, Padawans who were left to fend for themselves, and the children born or given to such individuals who still have much to learn about what they can do. When a man named Skywalker announces that he's rebuilding the Jedi order, that is all that it takes for some of these individuals to come out of hiding. The Republic is swamped with requests to help Luke rebuild, to find new students, to expand his libraries, to complete his own training and the training of countless others. What started as a small school with only one teacher on Yavin IV soon becomes a bustling hub of Jedi activity.

There are many different individuals that come to the temple. All kinds of species, all kinds of pasts. Smugglers and soldiers and poets and teachers and whatever else they had to become to survive the Empire. All of them, no matter what differences there are, have the same two questions: what can I do to help—and what's the story with the Mandalorian? The first answer varies based on skill specialty and level of expertise. The second varies not at all: the Mandalorian is here because Luke is teaching his son, and he wants to be nearby. For most of them, these answers are enough.

But for one of them, an old kiffar who knew Luke's father and Master both, all those answers do is drive him to look at Luke, and look at the Mandalorian assisting in his son's lessons, and ask Luke how long he's been in love.


	36. Bleed On Me

He was doing something very stupid. He was doing something _incredibly_ very stupid. Luke was bringing a supervillain into his apartment.

Well, probably a supervillain. Luke didn't recognize this one off the top of his head, the guy wore armor and killed people for money, he knew that part, but there might be an altruistic reason for that maybe? Hopefully. He wasn't really one to pass judgement anyways, especially considering his own vendetta against Empirecorp had lead to the media branding _him_ a supervillain on more than one occasion already. So what if he blew up a warehouse or two? They had _death beams_ in those things half the time.

Anyways. Luke was doing his regular nightly patrols, and he just. Found the guy bleeding out on a rooftop. The wounds looked pretty nasty, but not fatal. Not immediately anyways. They probably would be if Luke hadn't found him though, which was a big reason why Luke ended up taking the much heavier man home for treatment. He wasn't entirely sure what to do now, though. Time to look up how to get bloodstains out of his carpet. And how to clean wounds. And also which supervillain this is.

...And also what his number is.


	37. Don't Touch Me These Are Gucci

For some odd reason, ever since Din had started traveling with Luke, he's been getting a number of strange looks. He's used to people staring at him, Mandalorians aren't exactly hard to miss, but these looks are different from the ones he usually gets. They're... lighter, somehow. Almost mocking. And for some reason they always seem to come after whoever's looking at him has gotten a good look at Luke, too, and realized they're traveling together. Din can't explain it. Ahsoka had said that it would be strange for a Jedi and a Mandalorian to be seen traveling together, but surely she hadn't meant it like this?

The answer to the strange looks has always eluded him until the day that they were joined by Han Solo, who took one look around them and groaned like he'd understood in a few seconds what had eluded Din for months. As Solo (reluctantly, but with a fair amount of suppressed laughter) explained, it all came down to appearances. Din as a tall, broad-shouldered Mandalorian in full beskar armor was terrifying, and he moved with the gait of a predator. Coupled with his habitual terseness and inability to not check the exits everywhere he went, Din came across as a capable combatant. Luke, on the other hand, was shorter than the average stormtrooper, friendly, seemingly oblivious to everything around him due to checking his surroundings with the Force, and had all of his muscles hidden under stylish and form-fitting clothes. Luke doesn't look like a fighter.

Luke looks like a dumb, pretty boytoy that the big scary Mandalorian just happens to bring along with him for some reason.


	38. Run From The Law Run From My Life

Moisture farmer Luke Skywalker wanted nothing more than to find his father somewhere out in the stars beyond Tatooine. Imperial Prince Luke Skywalker wanted nothing more than to go back to those innocent days. His father was no navigator on a spice freighter, he was Darth Vader, fist of the Emperor and Lord of the Sith. For all that Vader might try to be kind to his son, he was far too steeped in the Dark Side of the Force to be much good at it—especially after he had seen fit to begin teaching his son how to use that grand power that flowed through them and the universe around them. The Dark Side burned. It burned and twisted and ached and agonized and _Luke couldn't stand it anymore_.

So he ran away. He ran, as far as he possibly could with the limited amount of credits that he had, and he ended up playing mechanic to some Mandalorian bounty hunter in the Outer Rim. He's never told the bounty hunter who he really is. The bounty hunter, in turn, has never told Luke so much as his name. It's not an easy life—bounty hunting isn't exactly the safest profession—but the work comes intuitively to him, and the pull of the Dark Side is so far away he can hardly even feel it most days. It's not like his old life on Tatooine, but it's close enough sometimes that Luke thinks he could learn to love it. He's already learning to love the bounty hunter, if nothing else.

And then one of their jobs brings in a child that can use the Force, and Luke feels his past suffocating him as surely as his father suffocates his officers.


	39. I Remember You Fondly

This was Luke's first Life Day with his boyfriend and Din was nowhere to be found. They'd been planning a party at the temple for weeks now, something to get the younglings excited as they trained and something to help Luke reconnect with his sister and brother-in-law after the long months away. Well. He said _they_ , but in actuality Din had joined in on the planning very seldomly. The Mandalorian had grown more quiet and restrained as the holiday season drew on, going almost entire days without taking by the time Life Day was almost upon them. He seemed almost uncomfortable with the whole idea of Life Day for some reason. But even knowing that, Luke hadn't expected Din to straight up disappear the day of. So he went looking.

It took a good hour of searching—the temple was quite large—but Luke eventually found Din in one of the more closed-off rooms of the temple, sitting in the dark and intoning soft words in Mando'a. When Luke asked what he was doing, Din said that he was remembering his family. He said that Luke could go back to the festivities and enjoy himself, but that the sight of so many sentients in red Life Day robes was a bit too much for him. Luke found a spot to sit next to him and asked him what the robes had to do with anything. What Din's issue was with Life Day.

And in that dark room in the temple so far away from so many happy voices, Din told him.


	40. Not Far From The Tree

This is the best day of Quinlan Vos's life. The Republic is hashing out an agreement with Mand'alor Djarin to let the Mandalorian Fighting Corps assist in clearing up the last scattered remnants of the Seperatist forces still fighting long after their secret puppetmaster had been executed for his crimes, and Quinlan got dragged along to be a guard since he just happened to be in Coruscant for once. Which would normally have made this mission boring as all hell. Except Knight Luke Skywalker is with him on this mission and Quinlan would know those looks the younger Jedi is giving the Mand'alor _anywhere_. And again, normally, this would probably lead to him pulling the kid aside and saying something like _I know your dad did it and you wanna be just like him, but don't you think a planetary ruler is out of your league?_

Except. _Except._ Quinlan has been on enough undercover missions and trained enough in interpreting body language to know that the Mand'alor is _reciprocating_. These two are flirting in plain sight and no one else in the meeting party has noticed it. And now that Quinlan thinks about it, didn't Luke take a number of missions to Mandalore prior to Djarin's ascension? Force, they probably know each other already. They're probably already dating and no one's figured it out yet.

This is incredible. He needs to tell Aayla. Wait. _No_.

_He needs to tell Obi-wan._


	41. The Possibility Of You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This prompt has been transcribed and uploaded at the request of the original creator. Everybody say thank you!

There is an artifact hailing from an old and forgotten sect of Jedi, meant as the ultimate test in avoiding attachment. It would create a bond through the Cosmic Force with the one being in the universe that the user would have the hardest time letting go of—someone who would be a close friend or family member, a partner or mentor or lover. If one could build the bond and learn to let go, to love selflessly and accept that not everything can stay in one's life forever, they were considered to have reached mastery over themself, and of the Force. The artifact fell into disuse after too many Jedi Fell in their inability to let go of their attachments, but that information was lost by the time Luke Skywalker stumbled upon it. All he knew was that it was considered an ultimate test, and that was all he needed to know before he decided to activate it.

A few hours later, Din Djarin woke up in the hold of the Razor Crest with a voice in his head that wasn't his own. A few minutes later, he started panicking. A few days later, he decided to hear the voice out. The idea of being a test for someone else's self-improvement doesn't really sit well with him, but it's not like he has much choice in the matter at this point—Luke only knew how to activate the artifact, not to turn it off. The only other way out would be to sever the bond, and that would probably fail the test anyways. So they're stuck together.

Perhaps it's not all that bad, in the end. They both live pretty lonely lives traveling through space, so it's nice to have someone to talk to. Someone to swap advice and stories with. Someone to joke around with. Someone to share dreams with. Someone to fall in love with.

Oh.

So _that's_ why the test was considered so hard.


	42. Gentle And Kind One

It's finally time for Princess Leia and Prince Luke Skywalker of Coruscant to pick their own bodyguards. Their father's people, the peacebringer-monks of Jedha, are capable warriors, and he taught Luke and his sister to be warriors as well—but it's tradition for a monarch to have a guard of their own, and no matter how capable Luke is he will always be more capable with someone else watching his back. Leia needs hardly any time at all to pick her guard, for she has excellent intuition and knows exactly what she wants. She chooses an Alderaanian girl named Winter, and the two leave the courtyard together to begin getting to know each other at once. Luke, on the other hand... Luke needs more time.

There are plenty of capable warriors in the courtyard, all either sent by their homelands as an offer of stronger ties with Coruscant or otherwise soldiers of fortune from the grand city-state itself hoping to serve their home at the highest level. He's even spotted a set of Mandalorian armor amongst the options, which is an interesting choice considering that the crusaders of Mandalore have a notoriously contentious relationship with the monks of Jedha, and Luke's Jedi heritage has never exactly been a secret. He can't choose between the options just yet though, so Luke bids them all to recess in the castle and reconvene shortly before nightfall. Hopefully he'll have an answer by then.

He doesn't. Luke's still pondering how he's going to possibly make such a monumental choice when he rounds a hallway and spots the Mandalorian helping a servant that one of the other bodyguard hopefuls had callously barged into on their way to the dining hall. The man can't see him, Luke's certain of it, and there's no one else important that could peer into the hallway right now so whatever kindness the Mandalorian is showing to the servant must be genuine. He helps them up off the floor and gathers shards of broken glass for them, and offers to hail another servant to cover for their absence. The two then disappear down a hall together, leaving Luke alone with his thoughts.

...Maybe he would have an answer by nightfall after all.


	43. The Ruins Of Your Body

Sometimes, Din felt bad for his soulmate. Supposedly when you're fated to be with someone, you feel their pain and share their scars, as an incentive to find and protect them. All the pain they'd ever given him were the occasional bumps and bruises of a quiet life, and Din had put them through the pain of living life as a Mandalorian. It was unfair to them, but so was life in general. Din knew he'd never even meet his soulmate. He couldn't remove his armor in front of another person, so he'd never have the opportunity to compare scars with a stranger to see if they matched. So he'd resigned himself to a quiet life alone, and hoped that his easy-living soulmate would forgive him.

Then everything changed one day. Din had never gotten anything from his soulmate, and then suddenly he did. Aches and pains from battles he doesn't remember having. New scars, cleanly treated with bacta. He could remember one occasion on a job, a sudden burning agony coming from his wrist, and when the target was stashed away in carbonite he lifed the vambrace to find a ring of charred flesh separating his hand from the rest of his body. And he could remember, on the day they said the Emperor died, lying on the stone floor of the covert gasping in agony as the roots of some insidious tree carved themselves into his flesh. Paz told him he'd only been out for a few minutes at most. It had felt so much longer. Whoever his soulmate was, their easy life was gone, and they'd stepped into the galaxy at large as some kind of warrior. A skilled one, too.

Din desperately hoped that he wouldn't have to bring them in for a bounty one day.


	44. What The Future Holds

Jedi Knight Obi-wan Kenobi already has enough to deal with being both the first Jedi to slay a Sith in living memory, and the first Jedi to take a padawan immediately after being knighted in living memory. He wants to believe he's doing a decent job raising his padawan, but ten-year-old Anakin is absolutely a handful, and Obi-wan only has so much energy to deal with him.

They're in an old temple collecting artifacts for the archives when suddenly something rattles the flow of the Force around them. He and Anakin decide to split up to search the temple, trusting in their fledgling bond to alert them if the other needs assistance. Obi-wan allows the Force to lead him where he needs to go, and soon he finds what seems to be the source of the disturbance: two men, one a black-clad blonde and the other a Mandalorian in unpainted beskar, struggling to get up to their feet in a chamber that had been completely empty the last time Obi-wan had walked through it. There was no way these intruders could have entered the temple without either Obi-wan or Anakin sensing them; they must've appeared in the chamber when the flow of the Force was altered.

Abruptly, Obi-wan notices that the black-clad man is carrying a lightsaber—and so is the Mandalorian.

The two men speak to each other in hushed tones when they get to their feet. The Mandalorian chides his partner for messing with things he doesn't understand, while the black-clad man marvels at how the chamber has "suddenly" gotten more complete, almost as if they've traveled back to when it was newer. There's a silence between them for a moment before Obi-wan hears the black-clad man seriously considering the possibility that they've gone back in time. The Mandalorian tries to calm his companion, clearly the more sensible of the two, but then the black-clad man mentions something about stopping his father from becoming a Sith Lord, at that point Obi-wan feels compelled to step out of his hiding spot and ask the two strangers just what exactly is going on.


	45. Identity Crisis

"Mandalore" is an identity with a long and complicated history in the superhero community, and now mechanic Din Djarin is the latest fuck-up to find the mask and gain the powers that come with it. He doesn't even _want_ it, but the mask chose him for its next wearer and that means he's got a responsibility now to man up and be a superhero. Din might not know anything about being a hero, but he still remembers how to fight from his military days, and he has a pretty good idea of the layout of the city, so between that and the powers he might be able to make it out okay until he can pass the mask on to someone else.

Din runs into superhero Sky Knight on his first night out and almost by magic ends up being taken under the more experienced hero's wing. Sky Knight is easy to get along with, all friendly smiles and easy confidence, and Din finds himself quickly becoming enamored with his new... mentor? Partner? Friend. Which is more than he can say for the other man that stepped into his life recently: millionaire model Luke Skywalker, who came into Din's garage with a totaled Lamborghini, and keeps coming by every day to check up on the progress and bug him. If there was a way to measure how much Din liked Sky Knight, it would be matched by how much he disliked Luke Skywalker.

Meanwhile, at the same time, part-time model and full-time Superhero Luke Skywalker is still reeling from finding out that his father Anakin Skywalker, the first Sky Knight, is currently the villain Star Destroyer. His nights running around the city as the current Sky Knight are a welcome opportunity to be himself and process his feelings constructively, and since meeting the newest Mandalore, he's had a welcome distraction from his own problems for whenever things get too hard to deal with. Mandalore's earnest kindness is matched by his experience, and Luke really likes the older man. But if he had to choose someone to think about, it'd probably more likely be the guy working on his car.

To Luke, there's something deeply attractive about Din Djarin's terse confidence, the way he doesn't take shit from Luke's public persona. It's a large part of why he keeps coming back to the shop every day, just to see at least one person other than his sister that treats him like a regular person. Too bad it wouldn't work out since Luke is a superhero and Din is a civilian. Right?


	46. You Smile As The Sun

As a knight to the Holy Order of Mandalore, Din Djarin had already thought he'd seen it all. But the changeling child he'd found held in a brigand stronghold, and the odd portal it had created when the brigands had cornered them... Din had never seen anything like that. He had a feeling that wherever that portal lead must be the realm of the faerie because the world that greeted him when he stepped out was not the same as the world that he'd left when he stepped in. The stronghold around them was nothing more than ruins, and the wooden floor beneath his sabatons had become nothing more than the floor of the forest itself.

There was a man waiting for him on the other side, wildly dressed and wild-eyed, but with hair so fair and a countenance so beautiful that he could hardly be anything more than a faerie prince. Were Din not already sworn to the Creed, he would've given the other man his life right on the spot. But there was the changeling child in his arms to contend with, and there was the rapidly sinking sun in the sky to deal with, and even the faerie prince must've recognized the issues inherent with setting up shelter before nightfall because he swiftly herded Din and the child both into the strangest carriage Din had ever seen. It was made of metal and had no animals to carry it down the rode, but carried itself autonomously as though propelled by some kind of magic.

They traveled through the woods with an unearthly swiftness and arrived at the prince's home, where he beckoned both of them inside and retreated to speak with a dark-haired woman Din presumed to be his sister. Din marveled at the strangeness and opulence of the house. Was he a guest in the realm of the faerie? Or were he and the changeling child to stay here forever, as some sort of novelty?

Din didn't know. But he felt his heart flutter at the thought of spending the rest of his life with the fair-haired man.


	47. The Stone In The Sword

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This au was inspired by [this](https://twitter.com/hellfarin/status/1347972854847950848?s=19) twitter post. Please support the original creator.

It is a documented fact that when a lightsaber reaches 1,000 years of age, it will Awaken, gaining a spirit, a will, and a body of its own. These saber spirits were rare—as though the Jedi have existed for many thousands of years, their lightsabers have an overall tendency to be lost or destroyed before they can Awaken—but treasured as much for their wisdom and companionship than for their prowess as living weapons. Naturally, this meant that they were hunted down with the rest of the Jedi when the Empire came to power.

Din Djarin, the spirit of the Darksaber, has perhaps greater reason than most to keep his true nature hidden. When the warriors of House Vizsla first "liberated" him from the Jedi temple all those centuries ago, they still respected his autonomy as a sentient and granted him a place of respect in House politics. By the time that Death Watch was formed, however, that respect had degraded to the point where he was seen as an uppity sword with delusions of personhood, and one would be hard-pressed to find one among the House that even knew his name. While enraging at the time, it actually came in handy for him during the Night of a Thousand Tears—so few members of House Vizsla knew his name or what his spirit looked like that he was able to escape with whatever younglings he could take with him while they searched for the missing Darksaber in the chaos.

He fled with the children to a Tribe of unaffiliated Mandalorians. Settled in with them. None of them knew what he was, and Din was going to ensure it stayed that way; it's been so long since he's been treated like a person, and he's not giving it up any time soon.

Maybe that's why he's been procrastinating so badly on telling Luke, no matter how close they've been getting recently. Sure, a Jedi would theoretically know best how to treat a saber spirit, but... It's been a thousand years since he was first taken from the Jedi. Who knows how much they've changed in that time?


	48. You Forgot About It Too

Somehow, the New Republic wasn't aware of anything going on in the Mandalorian Sector. Which was fortunate for Din while his people were still gathering under the call of the Mand'alor, but it was also becoming a new source of minor stress for the unwitting king. The New Republic would notice the mass exodus of Mandalorians eventually and Din wasn't willing to risk his people's unification being seen as forming an army rather than forming a unified system. He needed to go to Chandrila and present himself as the ruler of his people, explain that they were coming home rather than stockpiling arms, probably also forge a treaty of some kind while he was at it. Din wasn't really sure on that end. He hadn't been Mand'alor long enough to have too much of a grasp on politics.

Besides... Luke's sister Leia was on Chandrila, and Din still needed to meet her and ask her blessing to court Luke formally.

So he gathered a small group of people to accompany him (of which Bo-Katan insisted on being one, which only lead Din to take Paz as well for back-up when the inevitable arguments started) and headed to Yavin 4 to collect Luke and Grogu, and made his way to Chandrila with a surprisingly small amount of trouble for his efforts. Din appeared before the Senate, said his piece, and retreated with his entourage to plan the next step while his chain code was being updated. A few minutes later Luke was even able to pull his sister away from her duties so they could have a moment to talk in private. For once in Din's life, everything seemed to be going according to plan.

Then guards broke into the room while he was in the middle of shaking Leia's hand and told him to step away from the senator.

Apparently being recognized as the leader of a free sector didn't nullify the warrant out for his arrest.


	49. Read All About It

Luke would probably laugh at the whole situation if he didn't feel like screaming right now. It's all over the holonet; "General Luke Skywalker Seen Seducing Mand'alor!" is probably the most bold headline that Luke as seen so far, but it's far from the only tabloid posting candid photos of him and Din suggesting that they're in some secret relationship. The photos were taken on one of his rare trips to Chandrila, meeting with Leia for his monthly family dinner. Din happened to be in the city on government business, something about hyperlane routes, and Luke figured he might as well tell the Mandalorian warrior how his son was doing in training while they were both on the same planet for once. Din stopped by Yavin 4 regularly enough that he had a good idea of Grogu's progress even without the extra update, but honestly how often was it that Luke got to gush about his students with anyone? So they'd found some place private in the Senate building and started talking.

There wasn't anything romantic about the conversation at all, but apparently whoever snapped these pictures either hadn't heard well enough to know that, or hadn't cared. A pretty lie sells better than a boring truth. Or maybe the story had been generated around the photos? In some of the shots, Luke was pretty sure he was starting to blink, which _did_ make his eyes look half-lidded and mildly suggestive. There wasn't much room in the nook they'd found, and Din always tended to lean forward when Luke told him about Grogu, so... From the outside, the pictures did look like they were talking about something very different from just Jedi training. Which made it all the more frustrating knowing how things actually went on the inside.

Luke didn't even like Din like that! Sure he was kind and modest, and he was always helping out with the younglings at the temple, and he was always such a good listener whenever Luke had a theory or a conundrum that he needed help working out, and there were very few people in the galaxy that Luke trusted more than him, and dank farrick.


	50. Tell Me Your Tenets

Din knows all too well what it's like to be a member of a dying creed, especially one that's so often misunderstood. There is more to the Way than simply fighting. And as he learns from Luke, there is more to the Jedi than what the Imperials taught the rest of the galaxy.

Luke can see ghosts. This is arguably one of the least weird things he can do. One of the ghosts, Obi-wan Kenobi (a name Din vaguely recognizes from his childhood memories, but which means nothing to him now) grew up in the Jedi temple, and served on the Jedi Council. According to Luke, he's been a phenomenal help in sorting out the false from the real in terms of information on his people, and discerning the true meaning of often cryptic texts. Din has to admit, there's a part of him that would love to have that kind of help in recovering lost Mandalorian history, but Luke tells him that becoming a ghost is a Force-related thing, and there was apparently only one Mandalorian anyone knew of that could use the Force. So his odds of finding a similar first-hand source were slim to none.

Still. It's nice to talk with someone who understands that kind of loss. Din finds himself talking with Luke about philosophy a lot, debating old codes and old grudges between their people, and how they would've done things differently. Similarities between their people. Differences. How they're both really kriffing tired of having to deal with people's banthashit assumptions about them.

Somewhere along the way in a discussion on how both of their people place such a huge importance on adoption and raising the next generation, they get to talking about the meaning of attachment and compassion. Supposedly, a Jedi was supposed to hold love in their heart for everyone they meet—which only has Din wondering what sort of love Luke holds for _him_.


	51. Powers Vested In Me

Months and months that Luke has known Mand'alor Din Djarin, and Luke still doesn't fully know how he feels for the man. They've been talking and sparring and touring what's left of the great domed cities of Mandalore, caught up between trying to find some kind of amenable situation between the New Republic and the Mandalorian Sector and training Grogu in the ways of the Jedi when arguably Grogu is more of a Jedi than Luke is on account of having once actually lived and trained at the Jedi Temple before the Jedi were wiped out. Luke knows he's _close_ to the older man, though he's not entirely sure how close, and whether that closeness is purely platonic or not. The tension alone is driving him insane.

Somehow, what ends up leading them to a better resolution is an _Imperial attack_. Somewhere in the chaos of the battle, surrounded by stormtroopers and machines and soldiers, Luke ended up making his way to where Din was, and somehow, Din ended up tanking a shot that would've killed Luke with his beskar plating. Luke. May have asked Din what exactly he was doing in a less-than-serene way. And Din...

Din might've said it was because he loved Luke. And he couldn't stand to see Luke die.

After that, Luke's not entirely sure what happened. It was a fairly chaotic situation. All he remembers is asking Din to marry him while he was parrying a few blaster bolts and repeating vows in Mando'a in between carving through dark troopers and battle droids.


	52. With Their Camcorders In The Night

It takes a few minutes before Leia can fully process what she's seeing. There's Luke's face alright, laughing along with Din as they look up at the stars over Cloud City. There's lights coming from behind them that tells Leia Lando must've invited them both to a party while Luke was in the area. As far as Leia knows, they've only been dating for a few months, but already they seem so much happier with each other than she and Han were at that point in their relationship. She's happy for them. It's a beautiful picture: the way they're both illuminated, the way she can tell Din is looking right at Luke, how comfortable they are with each other. The only thing that spoils it is the blurb of text plastered right above their heads.

"General Skywalker Secretly Seeing Outer Rim Bounty Hunter?"

She skims over the accompanying article, seeing the author ponder who this mysterious Mandalorian could be and what he might want with the New Republic's famous Jedi considering the heated history their people have. Leia almost wants to sigh. Technically, the blurb is completely accurate, but there's a dearth of information there that speaks very poorly about the galactic awareness of the average news outlet. Outer Rim bounty hunter, honestly.

She can only imagine the field day the media will have when it inevitably comes out that that "Outer Rim bounty hunter" is the king of Mandalore.


	53. What We Put Up With

Paz Vizsla was very tired of seeing Djarin pine away over the Jedi training his son. He could admit, Skywalker had a pretty face and a way with foundlings, but to see Djarin so utterly _useless_ in love was just maddening. He'd mope before it was time to make the monthly trip to see Grogu and Skywalker, and he'd mope afterwards too because apparently every single month he was too much of a coward to just outright tell the Jedi how he felt.

Ridiculous. How the hell did this man become Mandalorian, let alone the Mand'alor?

The Jedi is apparently coming to Mandalore for a New Republic meeting since _apparently_ his sister is one of the delegates and he's using the meeting as an excuse to see her. Djarin, from what Paz can tell, is stressing out over the meeting, and still has no plans to actually tell Luke how he feels.

So, Paz has had enough. He's sick of the pining and sick of the moping, and he's sick of his king being a mess. If Djarin won't tell the Jedi how he feels and end all of this misery then _Paz will._


	54. Languages Of Love

Din would say that he could hardly believe his luck, but that would be a lie. His luck is atrocious and so is this whole situation that he's found himself in. So he's captured by pirates, right? Beskar is an expensive material and not everyone is smart enough to consider that trying to pry it off a Mandalorian while he's still alive isn't worth it. But evidently these pirates aren't that smart. Especially since Din's not the only one they've captured: somewhere, somehow, they picked up a Jedi too. The man looks all blonde hair and sweet smiles, but Din knows the same as every other Mandalorian that there are few things in the galaxy more dangerous than a Jedi.

There's a part of Din that rankles at having to put his trust in an enemy. He doesn't really have any other choice though if he wants to escape; dumb and overconfident or not, these pirates have them vastly outnumbered. Lucky, the Jedi is apparently thinking the same thing. It takes them a few days, but eventually there's a large enough lull in the guard rotations that they can break out of their cells and make it to the escape pods with minimal resistance. They crash land on some alien planet somewhere, probably in the Outer Rim judging by the nearby nebulas Din can see in the sky, and they get to work making sure the pirates can't find them.

Then on the first night Din realizes something abruptly. The Jedi speaks to him, and Din can't understand a word of what he says. The Jedi, just as abruptly, realizes he can't understand anything Din says either.

Apparently there are multiple dialects of Basic, and the one the speak in the Core is _not_ mutually intelligible with the one they speak in the Outer Rim.


	55. Complete As You Are

There is no desire to kiss Luke Skywalker. There is no desire to reveal his face to the man training his son at all, though Din knows that Luke has already seen it. He views the world through the lens of his helmet, more clear than his own eyes can ever truly be, and he feels no desire to gaze upon Luke with nothing between them but air.

Luke is one of the only people that Din has ever met that is not even the slightest bit curious as to why he wears his helmet, or what he looks like underneath it, and that knowledge is more freeing than anything Din has ever known. He can still share intimacy with Luke—holding hands in the hallways of the temple, laying close to each other after a long and exhausting day, exchanging meals and cups of caff to have in their respective rooms, spending nights together bound in each other's arms—but he can do it on his own terms, as a Mandalorian.

He's never had that before. Whatever partners he's had before were never keen to stay when they realized how far his boundaries extended.

Sometimes he worries that Luke will turn out much the same, but every day the Jedi greets him with two plates of food and two cups of caff and heads to starts his day in another room so that Din can eat as he's used to eating, and he feels himself grow more and more in love with Luke every day.

The way that Din longs to kiss Luke is the way that his people always have, with their foreheads together and their skin covered in steel. The way that Din longs to hold him is with everything he needs to protect Luke, to keep him safe at a moment's notice. The way that Din longs to love Luke is the way that he does every day.

There is no desire to love Luke as any other sentient. Din loves him just fine as he already is, armor and all.


	56. Fall So Fast And Pass You By

The gods of the Sun and the Moon tend not to interact as a rule. The moon god Din spends his time in the vault of the sky hunting the great beasts of the world, granting light for his followers so that they might earn much glory in the hunt. The sun god Luke, meanwhile, spends his time in the sky assisting scholars, shedding his light on the mysteries of creation so that they can be understood. The two gods have their own separate domains, and their own separate interests. Outside of an eclipse, there is no reason for the two to meet.

Then a star falls to the Earth, and the two goods meet at last when investigating the crash.

The fallen star manifests as a small god in his own right, a tiny being of light and life, and the gods of the sun and moon, having found the godling at the same time, make a claim on him immediately. Din claims that the child is his by right because the stars are the purview of the night sky, his domain, and that he will raise the child to be a great hunter. Luke claims that the child is instead his by right because what is the sun but a star that shines in the daylight, his domain, and that if given the opportunity he will raise the child to be a great scholar. As the two gods argue, the small star wakes up, and toddles over to them both—just in time to cease their arguing.

Evidently, the tiny star has decided he wants _both_ gods to be his parents.


	57. Which Witch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This au was inspired by [this](https://twitter.com/JohannesEvans/status/1350968549263765516?s=20) twitter post. Please support the original creator.

Growing up in the arid plains of Mandalore, it's easy to forget that their people once had alliances with the witches of Dathomir's marshes—usually only because both of their peoples were allied with the Sith of the unknown expanses at the time. It's easy to forget, of course, until you travel from deserted Mandalore to lively Alderaan, and discover that to the rest of the continent, you people's alliance with the witches are their most known trait after the whole "wearing armor and fighting gods" thing. When Din moved into the arboreous nation with his adopted son, he was asked if he was a witch five times in the first day alone. That number only increased when he took up the knight-guardian's post in the Yavin Woods, and found out that there _was_ in fact a witch living there that the locals were well aware of.

The witch, a friendly scholar by the name of Luke Skywalker who claimed he was on a break year from the Coruscant Magicians' Academy, was nothing like Din. He carried himself lightly and dressed in colorful fabrics most of the time, surrounding his house with brightly blooming sunflowers and strings of singing kyber crystals. He was happy to teach Din's son Grogu in the magical arts when it turned out the boy had a natural talent for them, but on the whole, he was hardly what the average townsperson would think of as a witch. Which meant that every time they came into the woods looking for magical help, they went to Din's house first.

He was really getting tired of the constant mix-ups, but at the same time, it _did_ give him a ready excuse to talk to the other man...


	58. Stars And Stardust

Din, as a rule, prefers not to take jobs for high-exposure clients. He works in the Outer Rim, away from all the bureaucracy and tedium of the Core, and he prefers to keep it that way. But, well, the kid he's picked up needs a stable environment to grow up in, and most Outer Rim bounty hunters prefer to stay in the Outer Rim, so when one thing leads to another and he gets offered a job bodyguarding prince Luke Organa as he tries to do right by what's left of the Alderaanian people, well. Din would be lying if he said he hadn't seriously considered refusing the job, but he did eventually accept it. Apparently the prince's sister, Leia Skywalker, the one who calls herself a Jedi, was concerned for her brother's ability to protect himself from threats that would seek to target them both, and felt more secure knowing that one of the galaxy's greatest warriors was looking after him.

As far as his jobs usually went, this one was unusually uneventful. Organa was aware of his precarious place in the Guild and offered to wipe his record clear (at least within the New Republic) while they were working together, which Din appreciated. Despite the frequent travel necessitated by Organa's status as prince and politician, the environment he cultivated around himself was warm and stable, perfect for the child to grow up in. There was a part of Din that was seriously considering leaving the child with Organa when the job was over, especially after it came to light that he shared some of the Jedi powers his sister had and could teach the child to control his own powers with time.

He was considering it, but... leaving the child behind with Organa meant saying goodbye to them, and for some reason, Din didn't really want to do that.


	59. Every Breath You Take

The problem with Mandalorians is that, by their inherent combat prowess and militaristic nature, any gathering of Mandalorians is technically a standing army. So when droves of Mandalorians in all reaches of the galaxy started heading back to the Mandalore, heading the call of the apparent "Mand'alor", the New Republic was deeply concerned. The Mandalorians had waged war on the once Republic before, and while both the Republic and the Mandalorian forces had been decimated by the Empire, if these Mandalorians were amassing an army to wage war again, there was a very definite chance that the New Republic would not be able to win.

Enter Luke Skywalker. As a Jedi, he is technically beholden to the Senate (and even if he wasn't, he's beholden to favors for his sister), and with all the traveling that he's already doing in the Outer Rim, surely it wouldn't be hard to locate this elusive Mand'alor and determine what their intentions are? Luke's more trained as a warrior than a diplomat, but surely this job would be as simple as finding the man and asking a few questions, right?

So he agrees to take the job and sets out to find the wayward leader. It doesn't take him long—Din's been looking for him too. Luke asks Din his questions while they both attend to Grogu, apologizes for the inconvenience, and makes a plan to coordinate visiting times so that Grogu can see his father on a regular basis. He sends his report on back to the New Republic and spends an unprofessional amount of time daydreaming about husky voices and armored chests.

Then Luke gets word back from the New Republic. His report wasn't good enough, they say. They need more information, they say. They're in too precarious of a political situation right now to risk anything, they say. They need to be sure. Luke's set up continued contact with this Mand'alor, and that's good, because now the Senate doesn't want him to be a diplomat.

They want him to be a spy.


	60. Turns To Gold

It's been a long time since the position of court mage was filled. _Technically_ , back when the Empire was the main political body on the continent, Darth Vader filled that position, but considering his duties were primarily military-based, Coruscant had been without a true court mage for as long as Luke had been alive. Not that he really minded. The New Republic hardly had any idea what to do with him when the dust had started settling after the revolution, so for the most part they left him to his own devices. That gave him plenty of time to go traveling the continent looking for old tomes, or spellbooks, or rare reagents that the new treasurer had flatly told Luke they could not afford to source before Luke had even finished talking.

Especially fun was that a few months into Luke's journey he met Din, one of the wayward crusader-knights of Mandalore, and suddenly his ability to gather rare reagents was greater than ever. Need dragon teeth for a complicated cure? Din's just been roped into killing one by the local villagers. Basilisk blood? Those too. Crystalized light? Somehow Din managed to find that too, and it's not like he has any use for the substance so he just hands it off to Luke and continues on his way. And for all his armor and weaponry, Din is a simple man—all he's ever asked for in return is that Luke look after his son Grogu and teach him some magic when it turned out the boy had a natural aptitude.

This is genuinely the most fun Luke's had ever since the revolution ended, and he's really hoping he can convince Din to come with him when he eventually has to got to Coruscant again.


	61. All That Glitters Is Grey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This prompt is a divergent au based on another prompt on the server. It has been transcribed and uploaded with permission by the original creator. Everybody say thank you!

The Jedi tend not to search for force-sensitive children in the Mandalorian Sector for obvious reasons, even if not every planet within the Sector is under Mandalorian ownership, and so many children tend to slip through the cracks. Onesuch child was Din Djarin, whose ability was quickly discovered by his Mandalorian rescuers when the reality of his parents' deaths finally settled in and the sheer strength of his childlike agony nearly tore the safehouse asunder. Force Sensitivity is rare enough among Mandalorians that there is no established tradition to follow regarding how the children should be taught, but surely teaching a child with magic cannot be that different from teaching a child without magic, and they have plenty of practice doing the former. Din was raised to keep a level head while ensuring that he never grew too out of touch with his emotions, to pool his resources with the community and place their security before his own, and to put his abilities only towards the support and protection of himself and his clan—ironically, he was raised fairly similarly to how a Jedi child might have been raised, with one notable exception.

At no point was he ever discouraged from solving his problems with violence first.

When Din first learned that Grogu was a Jedi, that his foundling had abilities similar to himself, he figured that if there was need for another Jedi to train Grogu, it would only be to assist Din in teaching the child how Din himself was taught. Sure, his powers tended to get a bit... _vicious_ , when he was suitably angry, as though there was something just lurking under the surface of his control that was just _itching_ for him to give in, and on a few occasions he _had_ given in, but surely that was how these things worked, right? You do your best until you can't do your best anymore and then you just wail on a motherfucker until the screaming stops.

Well, according to the Jedi that showed up in an X-Wing one day, that was _not_ how these things worked. Apparently that was so far outside how these things worked that not only did the Jedi insist on taking over Grogu's training, he was amazed that Din hadn't Fallen and become a Sith. As if Din even knew what either of those things were.

At least he got the extra help he was looking for?


	62. Big Gays In Little Mandalore

Din Djarin did not consider himself a particularly interesting man. He woke up, he tended to his adopted son, he taught classes on traditional Mandalorian martial arts at the community center, he tended to his son some more, and then he went to sleep. Rinse and repeat. Sure, it was often strange to see a _mando'ad_ in full armor, even in the heart of Little Mandalore where most of their faith just stuck to sabatons, spaulders, and vambraces, but there were enough Children of the Watch in Los Angeles that his appearance shouldn't have been _that_ strange. He'd seen weirder on the _aruetiise_ that wandered around town.

Din Djarin did not consider himself an interesting man, but apparently the man he met at the community center disagrees. Luke Skywalker, recent amputee looking for advice on how to go about making his own prosthetic, had been pretty deeply interested in Din since they met. What had started as offering to introduce Luke to the _goran_ for more in-depth metallurgy knowledge had turned into bringing Din coffee at his work in the evening had turned into playdates with his son and the man's nephew had turned into... Something Din wasn't entirely sure of anymore. Somehow he ended up meeting Luke's family—and having an absolutely riveting conversation on the absolute shit condition of the American Foster Care System—and somehow Din was seriously considering introducing Luke to his own family, no matter how much of a dick Paz could be.

Even after finally getting his prosthetic made, Luke was pretty interested on keeping Din around. And somewhere between talking with Luke's sister over the phone or taking him out for a night on the town, Din was starting to think maybe he wanted to keep Luke around too.

**Author's Note:**

> The Din/Luke server can be found at https://discord.gg/8QS66HVUYA if you want to join.


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